Uniforms strip students of their individuality

January 09, 2006|AMANDA SOMMERS Riley High School

Could you ever imagine every single student of Riley wearing a white shirt, navy blue pants, blue tie, and dress shoes? The South Bend school board could make this possibility a reality by August of 2006. If 70 percent of the parents of Riley students agree to have uniforms, the underclassmen could be faced with conformity of unoriginality. If a uniform policy is enforced at Riley what is the standard going to be and who is going to enforce it? Students have found ways around the dress code as it is. At Jackson we had security guards chasing us around the school with a rope if our pants even showed our underwear line. The security guards aren't doing that here because they have more important things to do like keeping kids from smoking pot in the bathroom. Are we going to have 'uniform police?' The uniform policy can only be set into effect if parents and faculty agree on it. I am sure that plenty of parents are going to have problems with the policy and that is going to be a bigger problem for the administration. I am sure that principal W. Mark Yates has better things to do than bicker with parents over whether or not students can be exempt from the uniforms. What are uniforms supposed to do for the student body? Keep everyone equal? I attended a Catholic school for eight years of my life and even though the rules were strictly outlined in the handbook didn't mean that kids had no way of getting around it. Those who wanted to show their wealth went out and bought Aeropostale khakis to show off, and those who couldn't afford fancy things still got made fun of. The really cool thing about Riley is the diversity. There are all sorts of different people and cultures here and students can get a taste of the culture of the real world. We all wear different kinds of clothing, dye our hair different colors, and express ourselves. With the new uniform policy, students can wear headscarves to express their religion, but we can't express ourselves through wearing what we want. I think that this is unfair. I understand that religion is a First Amendment right, but there are other freedoms being ignored by this policy. Freedom of speech and expression is part of the First Amendment, no matter what the school board thinks. It is impossible to enforce uniforms at all public schools. It has worked so far at schools like LaSalle because it is optional to attend those schools. Forcing students to wear uniforms is against the First Amendment. The bottom line is that uniforms cost money. We all attend a public school where our education is paid for by the state. Plenty of low-income families send their children to Riley because they don't have the money to afford a private school education. How is the school system going to force these families to buy uniforms? By shoving their burden off on local business and community leaders? Or making students who pay for their uniforms donate them back to the school? And if the school system is going to provide money for these families, what is going to regulate who gets these free uniforms? I believe that the school corporation has better things to spend their money on. I think the school board needs to step inside Riley and try to understand what goes on inside these walls. Until then, I don't believe that they would be able to understand how uniforms would affect our school demographic and strip us of our individuality. We are wasting time and money on a policy that will probably never go into effect here at Riley.